John Stephen Farmer

John Stephen Farmer
Born7 March 1854
Died18 January 1916 (1916-01-19) (aged 61)
Occupation(s)Lexicographer, spiritualist

John Stephen Farmer (7 March 1854 – 18 January 1916) also known as J. S. Farmer was a British lexicographer, spiritualist and writer. He was most well known for his seven volume dictionary of slang.

Career

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Farmer was born in Bedford. His lifetime work was Slang and its Analogues published in seven volumes (1890–1904) with William Ernest Henley.[1][2]

Farmer took interest in psychical research and spiritualism. He was the first editor for the spiritualist journal Light.[3] From 1878, he also edited the Psychological Review, a spiritualist periodical.[4] Farmer was a member of the London Spiritualist Alliance.[5]

Farmer defended the medium William Eglinton from accusations of fraud and in 1886 wrote a biography about Eglinton.[6]

Publications

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References

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  1. ^ Coleman, Julie. (2008). A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries: Volume III: 1859–1936. Oxford University Press. pp. 53-54. ISBN 978-0199549375
  2. ^ Hughes, Geoffrey. (2006). An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-speaking World. Routledge. pp. 158-159. ISBN 978-0765612311
  3. ^ Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0521347679
  4. ^ Lavoie, Jeffrey D. (2014). Search for Meaning in Victorian Religion: The Spiritual Journey and Esoteric Teachings of Charles Carleton Massey. Lehigh University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1611461848
  5. ^ Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0521347679
  6. ^ Christine Ferguson. (2012). Determined Spirits: Eugenics, Heredity and Racial Regeneration in Anglo-American Spiritualist Writing, 1848–1930. Edinburgh University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0748639656

Further reading

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  • Eric Dingwall. (1981). Light and the Farmer Mystery. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51: 22-25.
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